So I seized the homeless kid by the neck and violently shook him because he tried to grab my dime when I wasn’t looking at it for a moment.
Well, not exactly.
As proven HERE, you can’t trust EVERYTHING you read online!
The true story is HERE.
The summary of this event is:
- We were on the other side of having relational connections that could help us (we were travelling)
- We didn’t have a place to stay or some food either (we were robbed)
- We were in a hostile situation (teen females travelling in a country that believed women brought trouble on ourselves for having the nerve to travel alone)
- We were below being helped (the police wouldn’t let us use their phone to call our embassy!)
- We were up the creek without a paddle (as the saying goes).
After the local police pushed us out of their office and told us to solve our problems ourselves, we looked around, stunned.
What do we do next?
“I know!” I announced energetically, my Ned Flanders optimism in high gear, even back then, more than twenty-five years ago. “Let’s return to our lodge and read what to do in our “Let’s Go, Europe!” guide!
“This is the worst thing that could have happened to us!” my friend yelled. “Nothing in that book tells us what to do next!” The truth of our situation was dawning on me, like a light bulb on a dimmer, slowly illuminating.
We sat on the curb, watching the street kids, whose faces had more grime than ours, though all our faces were marked with tear stains. They had bare feet, but otherwise, our hearts entwined as one as we experienced the beginnings of the emotions any other human would have felt in a similar situation – despair, alienation from “the rest” of culture, and fear. A few short hours had erased much of the divide between “us” and “them”.
“What now?” my friend and I asked each other silently. We were sitting curbside outside our motel. Despite our protests, the motel owner told us to get our stuff and ourselves out onto the streets where we belonged.
And then she came.
A local woman arrived bringing a tray of fruit and local bread to share.
She had heard about our “misfortune” from her daughter.
The one hiccup in this story of rescue is that her daughter was the one who immediately told us NOT to chase after the guy who robbed us. Was she an accomplice? Was her mother? Were they all working together as one terrifying mob? We didn’t have many choices, and so after inhaling the food, our eyes still wide with fear, we begged this stranger to let us stay at her home that night.
And she opened her home to us.
And she shared the Gospel with us.
In the years that followed, I had often wondered, did Jesus prompt her compassion so she would want to show up and check on us?
Maybe.
But opening her home to two teenage strangers until the embassy representative could arrive after Spain’s long weekend holiday altered the trajectory of my life.
What would my life have been like had I been tossed out onto the violent streets of the city for a week instead, I have often wondered.
This woman, obeying the inner voice of God, or perhaps the outer voice of a Pastor, or the words of a Sacred Text, saved my life from physical, emotional and/or spiritual trauma.
Oh, and so, why do we choose to open our eyes to dangers foreigners are susceptible to being exposed to?
But for the grace of God, that foreigner could be you or one of YOUR loved ones.
When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. . . Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. . . . Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
And so now I can put myself in more dangerous and stupid situations because I KNOW that you will help me!
Thank you!
And you’re welcome for the advice!
Good luck!
Seriously though – Who is God asking you to remember in prayer, or what is He asking you to do this morning as you open your eyes to another? Who can you share your measly lunch with? Who could use a heart of compassion and an “I see you” smile?
And I wonder at the joy unveiled, like the opening of a present, when we meet the people in Heaven who credit us as those who were the hands and feet of Jesus through listening and obeying and changing the trajectory of their lives for the better.
How much future joy are you stockpiling? Got your heart open to the promptings of Holy Spirit? Oh, and thanks from those of us who appreciate your open eyes.
Photo Credits: Eyes Open by Amanda Dalbjörn on Unsplash, Gold Stockpiled by Yana Hurska on Unsplash
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Restoring Life 